Friday, October 29, 2010

Night Out.

This past weekend (rememberWed. night is like Friday night here- weekend are Thursday and Friday), we had a long awaited date night. We were invited to a Halloween Party. A little challenging without costumes on hand or a Party City around the corner. Lucky for me, I bought a pumpkin shirt at Target before we left the states for trick or treating, so I was actually pretty excited to wear it for another occasion.

Once the boys saw me, Owen exclaimed "pumpkin" and then ran off to find his costumes/dress up clothes. The boys costumes came from a "thrift" store for women on camp. Actually a pretty cool thing to have. I'm saving their Halloween costumes for the big day and then they can wear them around the house.

So here we are. Superman, Pumpkin and Mr. Incredible.

Even superheroes need to eat. A little dinner before the babysitter arrives. Nothing like a little vintage pumpkin tee and black flats. Mike in his "spooky" tree t-shirt. We had to make his current wardrobe work. Not too shabby. I think the handsome man makes the shirt. Now on to the best part of the night. Chili's in Saudi!!! Yes, it lived up to my expectations, could be the fact that I have been craving this little piece of home since we got there. Only took me three weeks to get there and the awesome couple we are with, Tiffany and Dave, to make it happen.

The only things different, the ice cream not as good. Ribs are beef and not pork, not as good. But the chips and salsa were right on and the sides were too. Everything else looked the same and was awesome! I'm an American through and through and this taste of home was just what I needed. After dinner I pronounced it the best night in Saudi so far, in which Tiff and Dave replied I was pretty easy to please and Mike laughed.

The interesting thing about being here and eating out is the family and bachelor sections. As women we always sit in the "family" section, an area for women and families to eat separate from the bachelor area. This allows the women to unveil to eat and a lot of restaurants have partitions they bring over to the booth to provide privacy to eat so that no one else sees the woman unveiled. Men never eat in the same section unless they are with their family. Sometimes it feels like restaurants create a box room in the back, slap a "family" room sign on it and call it good. So many things to learn and write about being here. There are a few good things about the family section, you can actually hear the people you are out to eat with and the privacy is nice.

We believe we found a babysitter we like and so do the boys. It was great to get out, get off camp for a bit and spend some time with other adults. It's not home yet, but I can see that maybe it could start to feel like it soon. Amazing what a change in perspective a little Chili's can provide. Hugs, A